Techmeme
January 20, 2019, 8:50 PM

Top News

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Facebook to launch Community Actions, a News Feed petition feature for users to tag government agencies and officials and advocate for changes, on Monday  —  Gather a mob and Facebook will now let you make political demands.  Tomorrow Facebook will encounter a slew of fresh complexities …
Matt Binder / Mashable:
Google Maps rolls out ability to see user-reported speed traps via small camera icons, in North America, UK, Australia, Russia, Brazil, India, and Indonesia  —  Drivers will soon have an extra set of eyes on the road, courtesy of Google.  —  Google's navigation app, Google Maps …
Wall Street Journal:
A Japanese hotel that opened in 2015 as the “world's first robot hotel” has fired most of its robots after they frustrated guests and made more work for staff  —  The robot revolution will have to wait at the Henn na Hotel in Japan, which is laying off low-performing droids
Alex Sherman / CNBC:
SEC filing: Disney lost $1B+ from streaming in its 2018 fiscal year, with a $580M loss attributed to its stake in Hulu and $469M to ownership of BAMtech  —  - Disney's stake in Hulu and its ownership of BAMtech led to a loss of more than $1 billion in the latest fiscal year.
James Ball / Columbia Journalism Review:
Tech companies funding journalism projects deepens their codependence and implies the media is the exception that should be protected from tech's disruption  —  Yesterday, Facebook announced it would spend $300 million over three years on journalistic content, partnerships, and programs.
Sam Byford / The Verge:
Video of a purported Google Pixel 3 Lite shows a phone with a plastic case, 3.5mm headphone jack, 5.56" 2220x1080 LCD display, and Snapdragon 670 CPU  —  It wouldn't be a new Pixel without a massive leak  —  At this point it may be a tradition that new Google phones show up in unboxing videos …
Biz Carson / Forbes:
Profile of angel investor and Code.org co-founder Ali Partovi, who now manages Neo, a fund that matches talented young engineers with tech industry veterans  —  s venture capitalists mingled with members of the Golden State Warriors at a fall 2016 cocktail party, tech investor Ali Partovi scrambled to find something to talk about.

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Featured Podcasts

Access:
Home robots are coming faster than you think, with Sunday's Tony Zhao
A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.
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The Nick, Dick and Paul Show:
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Big Technology Podcast:
Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis: AI's Next Breakthroughs, AGI Timeline, Google's AI Glasses Bet
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
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Uncapped with Jack Altman:
Vinod Khosla and Keith Rabois from Khosla Ventures
Conversations with people I admire about things I'm genuinely interested in.
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Channels with Peter Kafka:
Chuck Klosterman on Why Football Owns TV (and Why It Won't Forever)
Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.
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Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Special Edition: Key findings from the Microsoft AI Diffusion Report
Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.
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More News

Nicole Perlroth / New York Times:

Earlier Picks

Alex Heath / Cheddar:
Julia Reda:
Financial Times: